And fakeChad, I know there was still a lot lacking for blacks a 100 years ago, my point was more that it was dramatically better than 160 years ago. Also that there were a number of ways in which they were worse off today than then. A young black man had a MUCH better chance of growing up in an intact family circa 1916 than anytime in the last 30 years, AND had a better chance of getting a job.

Game of Thrones has officially hit the skids. Damn, it’s getting slow.

I don’t mind it. They seem to be trying to tie up some of the loose ends that Martin has left but since even he hasn’t figure out how he’s gonna finish this it’s difficult. They’ve got to set up all the pieces, which takes time. It looks like they’re building up towards the major battle between the Boltons and the Starks in Episode 9.

You can tell Jordan desperately needed an editor. They get an idea, then decide to make it “epic”. They’ll write the most intricately plotted series ever… then they get bogged down and lose track of the story. I’m convinced Martin became a “star” and now has enough money that he doesn’t have to work. He goes to conventions and they tell him he’s great. Writing is hard work. Kudos to JK Rowling for finishing the Harry Potter series. Can you imagine if she quit after book 5 or 6?

Well, Jordan died before the end, so he’s not currently controlling anything.

And I’m a fan of the WoT series, so I know some of the background there. Jordan had plotlines and huge boards and charts and all kinds of shit detailing where he wanted the story to go. His problem was that he built a fairly massive character cast within his universe and getting them all to come together at the appropriate place and time took a lot of pages.

I will say, I was never bored or felt the urge to skim with Jordan’s series. Martin? In addition to being an asshat, his writing isn’t that great. He’ll spend 3 chapters describing a trip through the countryside from point a to point b and then half a chapter on an actual important action filled story point.

And Martin was a foot dragging assmunch before the series ever entered production. Plus he was writing for Hollywood for years before he released GoT. I think, though I’m not certain, that he had plenty of money before the show went nuts.

Bcoch, he spent something like three books getting Mat out of Seanchan occupied territory, and three books with Perrin trying to rescue Faile. Most of that could have been condensed down to a couple of chapters.

Like I said, he didn’t know how to get everyone back to that final scene, and it showed.

I dislike “Epic” fantasy/Sci-fi because of this crap. I’ll finish ASoIaF because I started it and damn it, I’m not about to quit, but I’m leery of starting anything else. Trilogies work. They have a nice flow to them. They appeal to our lizard brains. Authors should stick with them.

I like “epic” fantasy/scifi. I’ve gotten to the point where that’s about all the scifi/fantasy I read. Well, not all, but a large portion.

I’m a fan of the huge story arcs. Martin’s problem is that he gets incredibly bogged down in minutiae. Jordan’s was that he couldn’t move his characters forward at a quicker pace. As long as there’s some action, I can deal with Jordan’s issue. Martin’s is just mind numbing.

Martin’s problem – for me – is that he’s perfectly happy spending an entire chapter introducing/developing a new character, only to have them NEVER reappear again. Or, be mentioned second had two books later.

Rand’s descent into whiny emo douchebag was annoying. Some angst is understandable, but Jordan let him wallow in it. And again, he made pointlessly stupid decisions that no one seemed to oppose.

Giving up 40 Asha’man as warders to Aes Sedai to “balance” the sisters who were bonded? The sisters were planning to attack Rand’s forces and kill (illegally according to tower law) any survivors. They’re lucky that they weren’t hanged.

Those gorilla/zoo parents were bad parents. I’m sorry if it makes the mom feel bad*, and I’m sorry it makes other parents feel bad because they’ve had mishaps too.

BUT I’M SORRY. Perhaps it was a momentary lapse. Perhaps we’ve all had bad moments, but they usually woke us THE FUCK UP. And , NO i’m not saying they should have done whatever they needed to in order to safe the child.

I”m saying THAT THE MOTHER COMPLETELY DROPPED THE BALL . This wasn’t just an “oops”. This was a complete fuck up. COMPLETE. Shows a lack of awareness on so many levels. She should have KNOWN she had a kid who couldn’t be trusted at all.

I’m just so sick of people saying it could have happened to anyone.

NO IT FUCKING COULDN’T HAVE.

sorry.

How many millions of moms have made it through that exhibit w/o a kid managing to crawl through and hop down? ANd how many parents would look at that exhibit and say “DUH – I need to watch my kid” here.

We’re going to need separate spaces for dumb fuck idiots.

Choice A – really cool open air gorilla exhibit for people with a modicum of common senses

MJ,
That priest who officiated your wedding, is that Steve Martin or Jeb Bush?
Also, your FiL (I assume, since he is walking GND down the isle) should be the next model for Dos Equis – the most interesting man in the world.
Lastly, you have put on weight! I hope it is not all fat.
——————————————
Jeb Bush.
He’s a total werido and not very interesting.
It’s all fat.

Seriously, Martin is like a petulant little toddler. He doesn’t have writer’s block, he’s just lazy. I hope he has an outline so Sanderson can wrap it up someday. Maybe if they put enough pressure on, he’ll have someone ghost write it.

Seriously, Martin is like a petulant little toddler. He doesn’t have writer’s block, he’s just lazy. I hope he has an outline so Sanderson can wrap it up someday. Maybe if they put enough pressure on, he’ll have someone ghost write it.

He’s been working on the 6th book for something like 6 years. He admitted that he missed two deadlines last year. The book was supposed to be complete by end of year.

And I’ll bet you anything he doesn’t have an outline for someone to pick up and finish the series.

“Not an accident at all. If a child grabs a gun and shoots themself or someone else, guess what? The parents are charged criminally. It’s called child endangerment. If a child walks away from their parent into oncoming traffic, same thing. ”

The older writers had to produce and churn out work just to live. Lawrence Block did a ton of work under pen names. His prose is so clean and crisp it’s amazing.

Current authors……write one book, big advance, crank out the next book in a year or two. You’re a star!!!! Go into development with Hollywood for movie or mini series, action figures, Sci Fi conventions….. writing, not so much. Look at Patrick Rothfus for example.

I check Kindle Deals of the Day and the last two I’ve ordered have been absolutely horrible. The writing was grade school if that. One was Bishop’s War. Horrible, immature, definitely willing your suspension of disbelief too.

The other was Caduceus and…..damn, i can’t remember and I removed it from my kindle it was so bad.

The Zoo shares a certain burden in this sad event. The Gorilla was not “secure”. As in, the environment he lived in was not secure. You should not be able to “introduce” anything to its environment in a uncontrolled manner. Especially from a public “viewing” area.

From what I’ve read, the kid managed to climb over, under or around 3 different obstacles and then fell 15 feet into a moat. I’m not sure how much more secure the zoo is supposed to be. This was the first time anything like this has happened since the exhibit opened like 40 years ago.

And the bullshit “expert” on Drudge who said, he didn’t beat his chest therefore he wouldn’t attack the kid is chock full of crap.

Ingraham had the beloved animal expert on who is affiliated with that zoo (Jack Hanna – Zookeeper who is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium) and he said, unlike the movies if they were to tranquilize the ape, the ape would firstly, flip out, start running and trying to remove the dart. How is the kid supposed to survive a whacked out ape? He said it takes between 5-7 minutes for the animal to finally be knocked out.

I’ve got a love/hate relationship with the Cape. Lots of good memories there but there’s too many fookin’ people there. I grew up a couple of hours away and my spinster aunts lived in a little cottage in Wareham near Swift’s Beach (technically not “the” Cape but they worked as shoe makers in Fall River, MA so it made the commute easier).

My parents built their retirement home in Osterville two houses down from my sister’s in-laws. There was a really nice town beach we got to use in the summer. They lasted from ’96 to around ’04 when they moved to Wareham into a smaller house and cut the bridges out of their travels. They moved even closer to the old hometown and friends/relatives (and to an even smaller house) about 5 years later.

The narrow, curling staircase we had to bring freight down today was the steepest yet. It was so steep, that the step that was five steps up from me was about two feet from my face. Basically a gentle ladder. Because it was curling, the inside of the step was only two inches deep and the outside fanned out to a foot deep. So nice for lugging heavy loads when you are a biped.

Helpfully, there was a reverse curl, where after turning one direction for a flight, one suddenly had to adjust the load to turn in the opposite direction for two more flights.

I’ve been reading Numbers, so I almost finished that with “as an oblation, a sweet aroma unto the Lord” but it seemed blasphemous. Glad I didn’t say that. You know, in retrospect. Probably dodged a bullet there.

Oh Derp, can you help me, could you tell me her name, ’cause
I know that I need her, I know that I need her
I’m somebody tryin’, tryin’ to play the game, ’cause
I know that I need her, I’m dyin’ to greet her